Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – With other treating or handling of material
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-03
2001-04-10
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
With other treating or handling of material
C099S426000, C099S424000, C099S428000, C099S448000, C249S082000, C249S155000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213003
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to pans for preparing food products which can expand during cooking.
To impart a particular shape to a food product such as pastry after it has been cooked, a pan is generally used that is partly filled with pastry, and so the pastry expands freely and occupies all of the volume of the pan at the end of cooking.
A pan which is open at the top is most usually employed so that any excess pastry can project out of the pan. However, the final shape of the product is then not entirely determined, because its top face depends on the initial quantity of pastry introduced into the pan and on the capacity of the pastry for expansion while cooking.
If all the faces of the pastry are to be molded at the end of cooking, the pan must be closed and its volume must correspond as accurately as possible to the total volume of the pastry at the end of cooking. This condition is difficult to satisfy because the expansion of the pastry during cooking depends on a large number of factors, in particular on objective cooking conditions such as the temperature, but also on the nature of the pastry and its ingredients. It is therefore necessary to control accurately the quantity of pastry that is introduced into the pan.
If the quantity of pastry is insufficient to fill all of the volume of the pan after cooking, molding is incomplete and the product has a random final shape.
On the other hand, if the quantity of pastry is too large, the expansion of the pastry tends to open the pan or to compress the material inside the pan, which leads to a more dense molding and affects the taste and mechanical properties.
The document FR 2 695 802 A describes various bakery pans with an adjustable filling in which a peripheral wall of the pan, parallel to an axis, is open at a through-aperture and joined to a closed base, defining an internal volume open at the through-aperture opposite the base, and shaped to contain and mould food products such as pastry while they are cooking. A mobile intermediate wall slides freely and with a small clearance in the peripheral wall in the direction parallel to the axis towards and away from the base. Means are provided for temporarily holding the mobile intermediate wall in a chosen intermediate position along its sliding stroke between the base and the through-aperture. In the above document, the mobile intermediate wall is held in an intermediate filling position by a removable wedge. With the wedge removed, the mobile intermediate wall can slide as cooking proceeds.
One problem is that the expansion of the pastry in a pan of the above kind is somewhat random and asymmetrical, and the mobile intermediate wall often jams, causing defects in the molded shape of the pastry after molding.
Another problem is that, if there is a plurality of associated pans side-by-side, it is necessary to provide a wedge for each pan, to introduce it individually into the pan, and then to extract it individually, which considerably complicates handling.
Also, with a device of the above kind, the filling of the pan is complex as all the wedges must be held in the chosen position simultaneously.
STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION
The problem addressed by the present invention is that of designing a new bakery pan structure allowing adjustable filling, which is reliable in operation, which achieves molding of defined shape without risk of defects, and which facilitates filling of the pan during the initial step of filling.
The invention also aims to facilitate handling of the pan during the preparation and cooking steps, as well as during removal of the cooked product from the pan, by avoiding individual handling operations.
To achieve the above and other objects, a bakery pan according to the invention for food products includes:
at least one tubular peripheral wall generally parallel to a median axis, open at a first end at a through-aperture, and joined at a second end to a base, defining a pan element having an internal volume open at the through-aperture opposite the base and shaped to contain and mould the food products while they are cooking,
a mobile intermediate wall sliding freely and with a small clearance in the peripheral wall over a sliding stroke in the direction parallel to the median axis and towards and away from the base, and closing the internal molding volume on the side opposite the through-aperture,
means for temporarily holding the mobile intermediate wall in a chosen intermediate filling position along its sliding stroke between the base and the through-aperture,
an adjusting rod, fastened to the mobile intermediate wall, sliding freely and with a small clearance in a median passage of the base, along the median axis, and longer than the sliding stroke of the mobile intermediate wall, with an end stop preventing it escaping from the median channel in the direction of the through-aperture,
a baseplate, having an opening in corresponding relationship to the through-aperture and fastened to the outside face of the peripheral wall,
means for temporarily holding the adjusting rod in a chosen intermediate position during filling of the pan.
Because of the adjusting rod, the mobile intermediate wall slides reliably in the peripheral wall, despite random imbalances in the thrust of the pastry as it expands during cooking, with the result that the pastry is sure to occupy the whole of the volume of the pan in a regular manner at the end of cooking. Also, the mobile intermediate wall is held effectively in the filling position, with the result that the filling operation carried out by the user is correct.
In one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the means for temporarily holding the adjusting rod in a chosen intermediate position include:
a support plate,
removable and interchangeable spacer means adapted to be inserted around the peripheral wall between the support plate and the baseplate, with the end of the adjusting rod pressed against the support plate, to hold the baseplate away from the support plate by a distance such that the adjusting rod holds the mobile intermediate wall in the chosen intermediate filling position.
The pan preferably further includes an attached closure plate adapted to close off the through-aperture selectively, with holding means for holding the closure plate pressed against the peripheral edge of the through-aperture.
The spacer means can advantageously include a set of interchangeable tubular frames each of which is shaped to surround the peripheral wall(s) of the pan.
The invention can be applied to a pan structure with a single cell, having a single interior volume.
However, the number of cells that can be filled simultaneously can advantageously be increased, by providing a plurality of peripheral walls attached to the same generally plane baseplate with a plurality of openings and each having a base and a mobile intermediate wall, the mobile intermediate walls being associated with adjusting rods of the same length.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2167038 (1939-07-01), Damon
patent: 3339878 (1967-09-01), Lind
patent: 3612036 (1971-10-01), Kaufman
patent: 4649053 (1987-03-01), Lamonica
patent: 5690019 (1997-11-01), Barker et al.
patent: 5692431 (1997-12-01), Herring
patent: 2695802 (1994-03-01), None
patent: 1003099 (1997-11-01), None
Eilberg William H.
Simone Timothy F.
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